Esteemed Legions of NANOG:
Does anyone have better and more modern recommendations for the hardware of
an Ookla speedtest server?
Here is the link to their recommendations.
http://www.ookla.com/support/a26461638/
I want a server that is capable of handlilng a speedtest up to 10Gbps. I
plan to do this with an SFP+ port when my network comes along. (As soon as
MikroTik comes out with a decent 10G CCR router that is compatible with more
SFPs.)
In the mean time I will just test 1 Gbps speeds off a copper GE port, but
want the SFP+ capability so I don't have to repurchase hardware in the next
year.
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Lorell Hathcock
Chief Technology Officer
SolStar Network, LLC
Communications
FIBER - VOIP - SECURITY - TV
FTTH - Commercial - Residential
Burglar - Access Control
956-478-5955 (cell) - 956-316-4090 (main)
<mailto:lorell@SolStarNetwork.com> lorell@SolStarNetwork.com
<http://www.solstarnetwork.com/> www.SolStarNetwork.com
TX License #B19998
I dearly would like them to update the software to include a similar
bufferbloat related test to what dslreports is doing.
http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/results/bufferbloat?up=1
If you'd like a dslreports server instead... I know who to contact. 
Dave Täht
Let's go make home routers and wifi faster! With better software!
https://www.gofundme.com/savewifi
not require flash. Last I knew ookla still required flash,
and one should just say no to flash. Dslreports (and
other speed tests) work with modern browser technologies
without flash or java.
hi lorell
Esteemed Legions of NANOG:
...
Here is the link to their recommendations.
http://www.ookla.com/support/a26461638/
...
In the mean time I will just test 1 Gbps speeds off a copper GE port, but
want the SFP+ capability so I don't have to repurchase hardware in the next
year.
also in the meantime, while waiting for the fiber stuff to be built out,
you could use a $400 copper-based 10gigE pci card too
magix pixie dust
alvin
http://DDoS-Mitigator.net
PCI's a bit too slow for 10Gbit/sec - I'd definitely opt for PCI-E.
You can't get SFP+ PCI cards anyways. I don't think you can very easily
get boards with PCI on them, either.
I expect he was just typing it out and left the "E" =)
Josh Luthman
Office: 937-552-2340
Direct: 937-552-2343
1100 Wayne St
Suite 1337
Troy, OH 45373
I can't see Mikrotik taking stock in 10GBASE-T on their CCRs any time
soon, either.
The speedtest.net is flash based. Many computers struggle to measure 1g
speed and not because the network is slow. I think you will find it very
hard to get a 10g measure.
If you like us just want to be sure your 1g users get 1g even when other
users are running parallel tests, you do not need to worry too much about
the server. It needs a 10g NIC but it does not need to perform more than 2g
if even that. You will simply not have that many parallel tests running at
any given time.
Regards
Baldur
I haven't heard much as far as CCR 10G incompatibility issues.
Do you have (or are planning to have) a clear 10G path to enough systems that
want to use speedtest specifically to make it worthwhile? We have a lot of
gear reachable at high speeds, but the admins of those servers usually care
more about iperf and similar than speedtest.....
imagine lorell has a userbase on his ISP service of lots of 100mbps or
1gbps customers.
Imagine some percentage of them want to test their network speeds.
Imagine enough of them are trying at peak times that 1gbps to the
'speed test server' is not enough bandwidth.
Perhaps he could instead run 10 servers or a 10g loadbalancer and 10
1g boxes behind that loadbalancer?
After 5 happy years of using Speedtest, we had to drop them this year for a 2 reasons.
a) they tripled their price
b) their site which used to provide an excellent comparison between ISPs - at www.netindex.com was discontinued for some stripped down 4 country comparison site - http://www.speedtest.net/awards when it used have over 120 countries.
The value of Ookla dropped significantly so we just let our license lapse and did what everyone else was doing and pointed our speedtest to:
http://uk2.testmy.net/SmarTest/combinedAuto
and manage with this free service just fine.
-Hank
Good point. There will be no one customer that can get a 10G speedtest from
us. But there will be hundreds that should be able to get a 1G test.
Should any of them try simultaneously, I want to be ready. Plus I don't
know what miscellaneous speedtests from the net to expect, so I want to
affordably overbuild.
it sounds like horizontal scaling with redundancy and potentially
geographic distriubution on your network would be your big friend
here.
Here is a MRTG from the server that serves gigabit.speedtest.net:
http://ballerup1.gigabit.dk/ballerup-core1-xgei3.png
This is a 10G interface. The server is used by our users that include many
1G users. You are unable to see that because the speed test is much less
than 1 minute in duration (1 minute is the sampling period for the graph) .
Also you see the speed tests done by everyone else that uses our server.
As you can see you do not need to worry too much about the traffic levels.
You would be very unlucky to have two 1G users doing a test at exact the
same time. It would be extremely unlikely that you have MORE than two 1G
users doing a test in parallel. The tests are simply not that long and
people do not run test all day long. They try it a few times, and then
again a few times to show off for their friends or during troubleshooting.
Based on this experience I will say that you do need a server with 10G
interface (like ours) but you would not need to worry much about the
performance of that server. Just about any server with a PCIe interface
will be able to serve static files with the required speed on a 10G
interface. Use something modern like nginx and you are set.
The required performance is 1G for one of your own 1G users doing a test
plus the background noise from the external tests, which means that you
would get a good test with just 1.1G of performance :-).
Regards,
Baldur